Ketosis is like pregnancy: either you're in it or you're not. If you register even a trace, it's fine.

There's the occasional person who never registers a trace, but they're in ketosis. That's rare, though.

If you know that you typically register somewhere on the ketostix, then look for at least a trace and be happy anywhere it pops. If you're the rare person who never registers, throw them away.

I would bet that someone who registers large is not drinking enough water.

ETA: Don't bother testing after a truly carb-heavy meal. If you eat enough to drop you out of ketosis, your body will do a ketone dump, releasing all the ketones at once, since it'll be switching to using glucose for energy. You'll register really high for a short time, but it's actually a false positive.

It's not too much in ketosis (there's no such thing, you're either in ketosis or you're not), it's that the ketones are building up in the kidneys, because you likely aren't peeing very often. The ketostix measure the number of ketones in the urine, and if you don't pee, you're not excreting them. If you get dehydrated, your body holds on to water, which means it's also building up the waste ketones.

If someone drinks enough water, it's not often that they'll register large on the ketostix, because that person is peeing at least several times per day.

Sorry let me just get this right haha if someone is drinking plenty of water and peeing regularly one should be aiming for the lighter colors not the darker if they want to be in ketosis? Sry for the questions :-)

Where i am getting confused is you mentioned its not too much in ketosis if its the darkest color but if you are large (Dark) your likely dehydrated? which sounds not ideal like its too much but than as i understand its not too much.....now i even confused myself :-)

There is no such thing as too much ketosis, because ketosis is like an on/off switch, you're either in it or you're not. The light isn't EXTRA on if the switch is flipped harder, it's still just on. Get it?

My point about the large reading is that if someone is not drinking much water, they won't be peeing much. If they're not peeing much, the ketones will stay in the kidneys and bladder longer, because they haven't been peed out.

Try this as a hypothetical. The numbers are completely fake.

If my body will excrete 100 ketones in a 24 hour period, and I pee 5 times, I will release an average of 20 ketones in each urination. Right? If I only pee 3 times, I'll release 33 in each. If I'm a big water drinker, and pee 10 times in a day, I'll release 10 ketones each time. Each of those would register differently on the ketostix, but regardless, I'm still in ketosis.

If ketones are showing up in your urine with a standard, non-low carb diet and you are a diabetic, it could be a signal of trouble.

If you are not diabetic and are using ketosticks to guage your body's progress on the goal of entering ketosis on purpose, the purple reading is not a danger sign. A deep purple is a danger sign for diabetics who are eating normally.

If you ARE a diabetic and only started using ketosticks to guage your body's progress on the goal of entering ketosis on purpose, check with your doctor if you have concerns about how ketosis might affect your diabetes and your doctor's care of your diabetes.

(Other people might want to go to a doctor to discuss ketosis for their own set of health issues, too.)